Tomorrow's SlutWalk in London, and the slut walk movement across the world has sparked a lot of debate in our office and having talked to our colleagues in FPA we know there are differences of opinion at FPA too. Not the stand it is making - everyone agrees that sexual assault and rape is always unacceptable and that it is always always always wrong to blame victims of sexual assault for the crime. But mirroring discussions on the street, in schools, women's groups and households across the world we are divided about the use of the term 'slut' and about the ambition of the campaign to 'reappropriate' the word.
These questions are really useful and interesting questions and ones that I hope will continue to be debated and discussed - there is no doubt the debate about language can be useful - but like so many things sometimes the process of debate and discussion can become polarised and the debate and discussion becomes the task rather than actually getting on and changing attitudes and behaviours about the core issues. So to be absolutely clear on this one, whatever you or I think about the term slut and the validity of reappropriation lets us all be very clear that that rape is always unacceptable. Attackers are responsible for rape and sexual assault, never, ever the person who is raped or assaulted.
